Monty's face entered Jack's vision as the man leaned over him with a raised eyebrow.

  “Good job staying low-key, Jack.” Monty turned his head to look up the trunk of the huge tree.

  “Impressive though, hard to miss this one. It’s going to be a bitch to try and cut down, though. This stuff burns for ages, but is very dense. Axel!” Monty said as he called out for the other man.

  Jack slowly sat up and took a deep breath, and looked over his body. Purging that much mana had fully charged his prismatic mana skin and the sparkle was much more intense than before. Other than a slight headache, his body felt fine. Holding on to multiple threads was a strain and not something he thought he could do for long.

  He probably wouldn't be trying it again until he worked out a way to manage the flow from the second thread. It was a promising start though. He would talk with Turrel about it later, but he just assumed that it was not really something that many people had studied or invested time into learning.

  Most people had to absorb mana from an external source. That mana could circulate and be stored in their body, but it was a finite pool. The benefit of connecting all of that mana to a skill's activation was minimal when there was no way to refresh that pool.

  That wasn't a problem for Jack, and he really wanted to find a way to utilise his advantages in ways that people might not expect.

  “Shit!” Monty exclaimed as he looked off into the distance behind them.

  “Axel! Amira! Get the team up and on perimeter watch. We have something approaching from our six,” Monty shouted as he crouched and dashed away to the edge of the camp.

  There was still the small domed area that was repelling the majority of the snowstorm, it had been fixed to the top of the Turtle somehow. Jack looked around while the camp burst into action. The combat-ready half of the crew raced out and spaced themselves out around the Turtle, forming a loose circle. The rest of the group all ran and took refuge inside the vehicle.

  “Come on, Jack. That’s our cue. We are non-combatants here,” Turrel said as he grabbed Jack by the shoulder and started to walk him towards the Turtle.

  Jack wanted to protest but only for a moment. He knew the danger here was real and this wasn't some television action show. The two of them jogged the rest of the way and entered the now slightly crowded metal vehicle.

  They squeezed between a few anxious faces and made their way into the small space that had been designated for them, and Jack collapsed onto the floor cushions.

  “What are the chances that was because of me?” Jack asked.

  “What do you mean?” Turrel asked.

  “Well, I kinda messed up a bit at the end there and had to purge everything from my system. I kinda got the impression in the last rift we were in that that kind of attracted Riftspawn?” Jack said aloud.

  It wasn't something he had actually spoken about before, they had talked about what happened in the rift and his experiences. But he had just assumed it was basic and assumed because it made sense to him. When he started purging larger amounts of mana in an area, almost every time it had attracted Riftspawn from the surrounding areas.

  In his mind, he pictured it like blood in the water attracting sharks. All of the mana in the atmosphere here was pretty much ice, it was all the same and in balance. When he purged a larger amount, that balance was upset and it would disperse the mana around them, something that he assumed the Riftspawn could pick up on.

  Turrel nodded as he considered. “Well, that is possible, I guess. We do believe they have a way to sense Origin essence somehow and are attracted to it. It is plausible. Generally, locations with high concentrations of alternate frequency mana would normally be sites where conflicts have already happened. Mana preservation is important on expeditions like this.”

  Jack leaned back and watched as Turrel stroked his beard. He knew the man would listen and talk if he asked a question, but he could also see that he was deep in thought. Jack left him to his own devices as he pondered his recent experiment as well.

  He spent some time going over what he thought went wrong and why while trying to work out what he needed to test next. He needed to get used to holding two separate threads. He had no idea if it was something practise could improve, but it couldn't hurt to try. Other than that, he needed to find a way to slow down or control the flow once they joined.

  One of the key parts of learning or using a skill was the ‘Power’ component. Normally that meant having a clear idea in mind and separating a portion of mana from his vortex for the activation. When the skill activated, it pulled in all of that mana and did whatever it was the skill did.

  He had essentially attached his vortex that was actively amplifying mana to the ability's activation. It wanted to consume the mana that was available to it, but it kept replenishing itself. He was lucky he didn't try it with a skill like Shockwave, the blowback on something like that activating might have been dangerous.

  That reminded him: at some point, he needed to find a way to test his Overcharge upgrade for Shockwave at full power, with his capacity enhanced by his new gear. As his mind wandered, he was broken out of his contemplations as Turrel spoke.

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  “So, do you want to try to explain to me what it was you were attempting to do earlier?” Turrel asked.

  “Well, I … tried to connect the skill activation to my vortex. Now, obviously, in hindsight, that was probably not a great idea. I just thought I could control the flow a little better and grow the tree to the size I wanted and stop. Turns out stopping is pretty hard,” Jack said, acknowledging his now obvious mistake.

  Rather than laugh or admonish him, Turrel looked intrigued and maybe a little impressed or proud, Jack wasn't sure.

  “That is… actually a pretty logical step forward for you, isn't it? Explain how you did it. Being able to control more than one mana thread is normally difficult enough, most people don’t try it for long,” Turrel said, giving Jack his full attention.

  “Really? I tried it earlier, but yeah, I couldn't really do it and I just got a headache. After my mana sense upgraded, it was a lot easier. It was still difficult controlling them. I could only do one at a time,” Jack replied, opting to let Turrel lead the conversation for the moment.

  “Interesting. I have heard of people that were able to activate multiple abilities at once. I assumed multiple threads was how it was done. That would be more like activating separate threads… how did you join them?”

  Jack recalled the moment he attempted to join the threads together and explained it to Turrel.

  “I just pushed them together, really. It was hard at first, almost like magnets repelling each other. I don’t actually know, I just really forced them together. Then it started to draw from that thread and, well, it just kept going. I lost control of it pretty quick, nothing I could do worked to slow it down or cut it off,” Jack said.

  Turrel smiled. “I saw that part, but yes, that is to be expected, really. That is why the ‘Power’ part of activating an ability is so important. Once the mana is given purpose and shape, it will simply consume. It doesn't have a mind or knowledge other than the purpose you give it, the mana is just fuel,” Turrel said.

  Right as he was about to continue talking, the door to the room opened and Monty walked in. Monty looked between the two of them before speaking.

  “Am I interrupting something?” Monty asked.

  Turrel's eyes lit up for a second as he looked at Monty.

  “Not at all. Actually, I think you could help us ensure young Jack doesn't end up doing something like that by accident again. Could you attach a healing weave to Jack?” Turrel asked.

  Monty looked confused and looked over Jack's body as if trying to find an injury. Jack was equally confused and it must have shown on his face because Turrel let out a big sigh.

  “When Montarg has attached his weave to you in the past, it has maintained itself, yes? Perhaps if you were able to observe how that looked or worked internally to yourself, it might help you?” he prodded.

  Jack had to admit that was not something he had even considered, but Turrel had a point. If he could see how it worked, he might be able to replicate or find a way to do something similar. He turned to look at Monty expectantly.

  “Fine… I will, but just for reference in the future, if you grow a tree that big you will be helping to cut it down and harvest it,” Monty said as he reached out and tapped Jack on the shoulder.

  As he did, Jack felt a tiny surge of mana from him, and then a warmth spread from Monty's hand and flowed throughout his body. Jack watched intently and the world faded out slightly as he focused on what was happening.

  Even being uninjured, there were still hundreds of tiny aches, tears, or things in his body that were being surrounded by life mana. As he watched, little bursts of light popped all over as the ability healed him. Jack stared at a bruise on his elbow and saw the mana surround it. Above and below his skin, in three dimensions, it was a perfect replica for the shape of the bruise. Then the mana was absorbed into the centre of the shape, it flashed, and the bruise was gone.

  Tearing his eyes away from the healing aspect of the weave, he turned his eyes inward to see how it attached to his pathways. What he saw was strange. He had become very familiar with his own mana pathways and how it felt when mana was flowing through them.

  What he saw stood out immediately. Floating right next to his vortex was a tiny pulsating orb of mana. The orb was attached to his body and his pathway by a series of complex interlocking threads. They wove in and out between each other in strange helix-like shapes.

  But as he traced the path further away from the orb, he started to make out two very important things. The first was that all of these individual strands were actually just smaller parts of two larger distinct threads. The second, and for Jack right now in the moment the more important of the two, was how the two threads connected.

  It was simple now that he saw it. He almost smacked his head in frustration. The two threads connected to his pathway in different spots and acted like valves, one pulling mana from his pathway and the other pushing it back out.

  The ability itself obviously controlled part of that and allowed this to work. It only seemed to draw mana in when it needed to heal something, otherwise it just flowed any mana it absorbed right back out.

  As he watched the path of the flowing mana, he noticed that the helix shape seemed to move as the ability activated, loosening slightly when it let more mana in or out but tightening up when the skill was activating.

  He needed to see what happened when it needed a lot of mana to test his theory. He held out his finger with his eyes closed as he focused on the weave.

  “Cut me, please,” Jack said. He was a little shocked at how quickly he felt a slice across the tip of his finger, probably a little deeper than necessary as well.

  As the orb pulsed and activated, the helix shape opened almost fully and mana raced through the intake thread. His finger tingled as it healed and then the helix twirled back in tightly, cutting off most of the mana flow.

  He studied the shape, trying to see if there was anything special about it and making sure he could remember it. He opened his eyes and looked down at his now healed finger and then looked around the room.

  Monty was gone but Turrel sat staring at him patiently. Jack took a moment to gather his thoughts. He didn’t think he would be able to recreate what he had just seen. The ability he was looking at was like a single piece of rope, it had two distinct ends and could be attached to his pathway in two spots.

  When he pulled a thread away, he only had one end of the rope available to him. He might be able to find a way to pull a thread loose and then peel a thread off of that to get a similar effect, but that seemed beyond him at the moment.

  What he could try, however, was a knot. Something simple and loose, but something he could pull on and tighten to slow the flow of mana. It wouldn't be perfect control, but it might give him some leeway to learn and experiment a bit more.

  As he wondered what the safest way to test his new theory was, he felt the now-familiar itch that signalled he was on the right path.